Gelatin, non-fat milk solids, gums, and other stabilizers/viscosifiers are commonly present in the formulation of many food products, including dairy compositions, for a variety of functional roles. Removal or reduction of these components negatively impacts various organoleptic and structural properties of the final product, such as viscosity, stability, and mouthfeel.
Gelatin replacement is desirable in order to meet Kosher and Halal food standards. Consumers may also desire products which do not contain gelatin for a variety of other reasons including because they are strict vegetarians or want to avoid bovine products because of the current scare over Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (Mad Cow Disease).
Further, gelatin, non-fat milk solids, and gums are expensive ingredients, especially relative to starch. Replacement of gelatin and/or non-fat milk solids is therefore desirable to reduce the cost of the dairy product.
However, consumers demand that food products in which at least a portion of the gelatin or non-fat milk solids has been removed retain the quality of the corresponding conventional products.
Other hydrocolloids and starches have been used to add texture and stability to food products, particularly to replace fat. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,470,391; 5,547,513; 5,584,937; and 5,614,243 disclose jet cooked, high amylose starch products which are texturizers in that they provide fat-like attributes to reduced or no fat products. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,094,872 and 4,981,709 also describe methods of preparing reduced fat food products by replacing a portion of the fat with a high amylose starch. However, none provide the unique organoleptic and structural properties of the present composition.
Further, there are a number of starch/hydrocolloid blends which are known in the art to add gelling, viscosity and stability to food products, including U.S. Pat. No. 5,308,606; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,169,854. However, none of these blends have used the starch to provide the necessary gelling characteristics of the food product as it has previously been found that starch does not provide the same gelling characteristics that may be obtained using non-starch hydrocolloids such as gelatin.
Surprisingly, it has now been discovered that a hydrocolloid composition, particularly a starch composition, containing a high amylose gelling starch fraction and, a non-gelling viscosifying hydrocolloid that provides viscosity after shear and/or a non-gelling stabilizing hydrocolloid which may be used to gel stabilize and viscosify food products, particularly dairy products, more particularly cultured dairy products, can provide excellent organoleptic and structural properties. Further, such hydrocolloid compositions may be used to replace gelatin, gums, and/or non-fat milk solids in food products, while maintaining the organoleptic and structural properties of the products.